Adam Gase and Ryan Tannehill seek redemption for Dolphins in 2018

365 days ago, the Dolphins had their season opener against the Buccaneers postponed after Hurricane Irma touched down in South Florida. Now a year later, Dolphins head coach Adam Gase and quarterback Ryan Tannehill both seek redemption after a year that didn’t go the way neither had planned it.

For Gase, everything just seemed to go wrong for the Dolphins last year as injuries, a linebacker going AWOL before their season opener against the Chargers, an offensive line coach snorting a white substance and another linebacker arrested a day before a game was just some of the things he had to endure during a 6-10 season. Now with a few different players, Gase hopes to return the Dolphins back to the postseason after a one-year absence.

“I think every year this offense kind of changes,” Gase said. “Adding the pieces that we have, we’ve got a lot of different guys that we can get the ball to. I think that kind of was our first step. We like our skill guys and we like our guys up front. Hopefully, that’s going to help make a big difference in our season this year and really the production that we have on offense, because we haven’t really done anything the last two years.”

Tannehill hasn’t played in a regular season game since Dec. 11, 2016, as he has dealt with a couple of ACL injuries. After not getting surgery when he partially tore his ACL and MCL in 2016, Tannehill completely tore the ACL during training camp last year as he missed the entire season.

Before his injury, Tannehill was playing the best football of his career as he was in the midst of a stretch where the Dolphins went 7-1 in his last eight starts as he threw for 1,723 yards, 13 touchdowns against five interceptions with a quarterback rating of 100.1 during that span. While he would miss the Dolphins final four games of the season, it is hard to imagine the team making the playoffs without the improved play from Tannehill.

“It’s so different than the last time because that was two years ago,” Gase said earlier this week. “We were still in the learning stage trying to figure out how it was going to go and who we were leaning on. There were so many little things that we were just trying to learn. Now he grabs hold of the reigns and takes over practice, and he’s all riled up. Today, I figured out a way to upset him a couple of times, which is always great. (laughter) He was wired in today. It was fun going through today as a whole – the meetings, the practice, all of that stuff.”

This offseason, the Dolphins were picked to win anywhere from five to seven games. But Gase and Tannehill believe this team is not only better than their projected win total but that the Dolphins have a special group.

Gase finally has the roster he envisioned when he took the Dolphins job back in 2016. Now he finally has his quarterback back as Gase and Tannehill hope to make doubters into believers during the 2018 season.

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